Samsung Now Mass-Producing Slimmer 8GB DRAM Chips For Phones

Samsung started mass-producing the second generation of its 10nm 16Gb LPDDR4X DRAM chips for smartphones, having opted to commercialize the technology in the form of a new 8GB module which is both slimmer and more energy-efficient than its predecessor while maintaining the same level of performance which caps out at read-write speeds of 4,266Mb/s. The new products are made through a combination of four 16Gb LPDDR4X chips (16Gb equals to 2GB) and are consequently some 20-percent slimmer compared to the silicon Samsung started mass-producing in September of 2016.

While the company unsurprisingly hasn't named any specific commercialization plans, its new DRAM chips are extremely likely to be featured inside the top two members of the Galaxy Note 9 family, an upcoming series of Android flagships Samsung is scheduled to officially announce on August 9. The same technology will also be used for flow production of new LPDDR4X solutions packing 4GB and 6GB of DRAM on a single chip. While Samsung Electronics itself is expected to be one of the largest adopters of the new silicon, the same modules should also make their way to a wide variety of third-party handsets and tablets as the company is likely to continue offering its technologies to other device makers.

Samsung also announced an 8GB LPDDR5 DRAM chip last week, though that particular product still isn't being manufactured en masse and it remains unclear when exactly will end up on the firm's factory lines. The module in question is believed to be planned for implementation into the Galaxy S10 series which is likely to be announced in the first quarter of 2019 and offers data transfer rates of up to 6,400Mbps at a 1.1 operating voltage, hence being as much as 50-percent more efficient than both generations of Samsung's LPDDR4X line. Chipmaking has been one of Samsung's most profitable businesses in recent years, allowing the company to reach unprecedented highs in terms of stock performance in late 2017.

Dominik started at AndroidHeadlines in 2016 and is the Head Editor of the site today. He’s approaching his first full decade in the media industry, with his background being primarily in technology, gaming, and entertainment. These days, his focus is more on the political side of the tech game, as well as data privacy issues, with him looking at both of those through the prism of Android. Contact him at [email protected]